Camden New Journal - by PAUL KEILTHY Published: 04 October 2007
Margaret Hodge MP
Minister throws down gauntlet on Brill Place
Letter to New Journal puts future of property in Lib Dem hands
A GOVERNMENT minister appears to have thrown down the gauntlet to Camden Council over the future of the British Library site in Euston.
In a “draft” letter to the New Journal Culture Minister Margaret Hodge suggests that whether homes or mainly offices are built on the site in Brill Place is in the hands of the ruling Lib-Dem and Tory coalition.
In reply to queries by the New Journal following lobbying by Holborn MP Frank Dobson, Ms Hodge’s office emailed a “draft” letter to this newspaper on Tuesday making it clear the final decision on Brill Place will be made by the “democratiically-elected local authority.”
Before we could put the letter to council leader Keith Moffitt for his reaction, Ms Hodge’s department – the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) - contacted the New Journal to inform us that it was only in a “draft” version and would have to be withdrdawn. It had never been signed, of course, by Ms Hodge.
The draft letter adds fuel to a row over the site – on one side, a newly formed coalition of community groups, Labour councillors and trade unionists, and on the other, Lib -Dem and Tory councillors who are insisting that the planning outline for a mixture of offices, flats and possibly shops – agreed four years ago – still stands.
But the Somers Town People’s Forum, which is organising a protest meeting on October 17, are campaigning for “urgent action to stop the l and being sold off to the highest bidder.”
In their statement (see p 25), the Forum’s founders insist: “We do need more council housing and Brill Street is one of the few spaces available. Now we have a large plot of land available, owned by the government and on our doorstep. It can and should be kept in public hands and used for local people.”
Their call for a public meeting at Somers Town community centre was supported by Camden representatives of the PCS, CWU and Unison unions as well as Labour ward councillor Roger Robinson and likely Respect party candidate Mukul Hira.
They will be joined by Frank Dobson MP, who said last night (Wed): “The biggest need in Camden is for housing for people to rent who are presently homeless. This is one of our last chances to build housing, and everyone who can must do something to try to bring that about.”
But as the (DCMS) scrutinises a shortlist of bidders this week, Ministers from Gordon Brown downwards remained publicly silent on the sale.
They have so far declined to issue formal responses to urgent lobbying by Frank Dobson or the Camden Labour Party and, in the case of Culture Minister Margaret Hodge, pulled out of a planned letter to the New Journal which her officials began to prepare as long ago as September 21.
Comment on this article. (You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)
